Speaker 1: This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast
Speaker 1: edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Dan Caplis Show. Here on a windy
Speaker 2: Monday afternoons from the iHeart Studios. Looking out the window here,
Speaker 2: it looks like the weather is changing quickly, so if
Speaker 2: you're out there on the roads or heading home, looks
Speaker 2: like you may encounter some weather in your drive today.
Speaker 2: You're not listening to Dan, though, you're listening to the
Speaker 2: fill in, which is Weld, Kenny shri Steve Riams. It's
Speaker 2: always an honor to be here in the seat taking
Speaker 2: over for Dan. I think he's out a trial again
Speaker 2: for the first couple of days of the week this week,
Speaker 2: so you'll have me today and a couple other guest
Speaker 2: hosts as the week goes on. But I want to
Speaker 2: dive right into our topics today, and one of those
Speaker 2: is going to be the State Republican Party, the GOP.
Speaker 2: We've had a transition of power from the Dave Williams
Speaker 2: regime to the Britta Horn legacy, and in that process,
Speaker 2: it's been a little clunky from one transition to the other.
Speaker 2: And last week, any of you that are involved in
Speaker 2: Colorado politics on the Republican side, you probably had an
Speaker 2: email from the new chairwoman, Brita Horn, and kind of
Speaker 2: referenced taking over the finances of the party and through
Speaker 2: some information out there that can kind of be construed
Speaker 2: to question the spending of the outgoing regime for the
Speaker 2: last month. And I was asked to go on a
Speaker 2: radio show over the weekend along with Dick Wadhams. And
Speaker 2: during that other radio show we were kind of having
Speaker 2: an exchange back and forth, and I thought, well, I'm
Speaker 2: going to be covering for Dan, so why don't we
Speaker 2: get Dick Wadhams on on Monday afternoon and just kind
Speaker 2: of set the stage for where the state of the
Speaker 2: Republican Party is. So he's coming on with us right now. Dick,
Speaker 2: how are you doing, mister Wadhams, How are you, sir?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great? Sure, How are you doing?
Speaker 4: I'm doing fine? Hey.
Speaker 2: You know, we had a little conversation over the weekend,
Speaker 2: but to set the stage for the listeners, you know,
Speaker 2: I think anybody that's part of the Republican Party probably
Speaker 2: got the email that came out from chairwoman Britta Horn,
Speaker 2: and the minute that I got it and there was
Speaker 2: three pages of spreadsheet expenditures that kind of drew my attention.
Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, that's a lot of money. I
Speaker 2: think two hundred and sixty one thousand dollars that was
Speaker 2: outgoing from the account in that last month. And I
Speaker 2: think you probably looked at it in a similar way.
Speaker 2: But I don't want to put words in your mouth.
Speaker 2: So what was your initial take at seeing that email
Speaker 2: and kind of the information contained.
Speaker 3: Well, it didn't really surprise me, Steve. I assumed that
Speaker 3: probably the Williams regime would spend down the money in
Speaker 3: the account, as I recall going into April. For going
Speaker 3: into March, the party was showing something like two hundred
Speaker 3: thousand in the bank, and the last FET report they
Speaker 3: filed for the month of March, which was filed on
Speaker 3: April twentieth, I showed it spend down to something with
Speaker 3: fourth thousand or whatever it was. Didn't surprise me. Okay,
Speaker 3: But the only thing I'll tell you what has kind
Speaker 3: of really kind of rankled me. The whole few years
Speaker 3: Williams chairman was the character assassination that he he and
Speaker 3: others leveled against Christy Burton Brown and alleging that she
Speaker 3: had done he suggested, not suggesting, very almost accusing her
Speaker 3: of of illegal mismanagement of the party. And they never
Speaker 3: came forward with any concrete evidence of that, and and
Speaker 3: I think they're still doing it. So I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, Christy Burton Brown is an upstanding person. I
Speaker 3: just don't understand why they did that during their two
Speaker 3: year period.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, after the interview we did over the weekend,
Speaker 2: I got a text from Dave Williams that kind of
Speaker 2: it was a statement and it was on behalf of
Speaker 2: his outgoing his outgoing group, and it was it was
Speaker 2: pinned by Tom Bjorkland, uh the outgoing Treasure and he
Speaker 2: basically said, hey, you know, there were some problems that
Speaker 2: were inherited from even the Ryan call era that apparently
Speaker 2: didn't necessarily get cleaned up under KBB. And then when
Speaker 2: Dave Williams took over, you know, they were doing their
Speaker 2: best and this is his his take, not mine, they
Speaker 2: were doing their best to kind of make sense of
Speaker 2: all that and hand over a clean a clean Bill
Speaker 2: of goods to the to the now britt A Horn administration.
Speaker 2: So we're actually gonna have Tom Bjorklan on in the
Speaker 2: second hour of the show, So I'd encourage you to
Speaker 2: tune in if you want to hear what he has
Speaker 2: to say. But you know, I figured, let's just get
Speaker 2: straight to the source and see if we can find
Speaker 2: the guy who was actually doing the books. So hopefully
Speaker 2: that'll be a little little uh, it'll shine some light
Speaker 2: on the whole thing. But Dick, I the reason I
Speaker 2: wanted to have you on is you you were the
Speaker 2: party chairman for a while. Is it normal to see
Speaker 2: this kind of spin down in the last month or
Speaker 2: two of one person going out and another person even.
Speaker 3: M That's hard to answer the question whether it's normal, Steve,
Speaker 3: when I got elected in two thousand and seven, I
Speaker 3: discovered that the party he was in debt by a
Speaker 3: serious amount. In fact, it was in debt six hundred
Speaker 3: thousand dollars when we time, we got a full accounting,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't There wasn't anything illegal going on. The
Speaker 3: party just lost control of its spending as it was
Speaker 3: trying to help elect Republicans, and that two hundred or
Speaker 3: that two thousand and six election cycle. So I started
Speaker 3: off the day I got elected. I inherited a six
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars debt that took me over the course
Speaker 3: of the full first two years I was chairman. And
Speaker 3: so you know, it's just one of them. Listen, I
Speaker 3: ran for the job, I've got it, and I've had
Speaker 3: the responsibility for taking care of that debt and we did.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't I would say this that uh chair should
Speaker 3: try to leave some money in the bank. So that's
Speaker 3: the new chair has the ability to have some cushion
Speaker 3: going into their their term. I don't know what that
Speaker 3: figure is. I mean, you know, but uh sixty four
Speaker 3: thousand dollars or whatever, I think I think that was
Speaker 3: the figure I saw on that FEC report. That's that's
Speaker 3: certainly not chump change. The bottom line is that any
Speaker 3: chairman has the responsibility to raise money and they have to.
Speaker 3: They have to, and that requires going to big donors
Speaker 3: and and raising money from them, and and having a
Speaker 3: really solid grass roots fund raising them uh program with
Speaker 3: with social media and and mail and and so ultimately
Speaker 3: the chair the chair whoever it is, has to dig
Speaker 3: in and start start raising money and that's a big response.
Speaker 3: That's probably one of the biggest responsibilities of any chairman
Speaker 3: sure to do that.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: That actually leads to my next question, Dick. So we
Speaker 2: have Britta coming in. She I think she's trying to
Speaker 2: just say, hey, in the sake of transparency, here's the data,
Speaker 2: as I understand it. She put it out there. You know,
Speaker 2: I think people are going to read into it what
Speaker 2: they want. You know, there was It's easy to see
Speaker 2: that Dave Williams was paying himself through his consulting firm
Speaker 2: what I would call a salary for the last few months,
Speaker 2: which is not anything inappropriate. It's funny how it was documented.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think I think she was trying
Speaker 2: to just say, clear the errors. Here's where we're at now.
Speaker 2: Having said all that, Britta's goal is to get Republicans elected.
Speaker 2: Do you think that we are in a place in
Speaker 2: this state where Republicans can start to get some win
Speaker 2: in their sales and say, Okay, we're turning the page,
Speaker 2: we're moving forward. Can Britta go out and help raise money?
Speaker 2: And I guess second to that, Dick, do you think
Speaker 2: there's the candidates out there to inspire Republicans to donate.
Speaker 3: Well, this is the problem, Steve, is that we have
Speaker 3: a dramatically changed electorate from what it was as recently
Speaker 3: as ten years ago. And that's largely been driven by
Speaker 3: all the new people who moved here. Now that migration
Speaker 3: into the state has largely kind of flattened, but it
Speaker 3: was it was massive for a while. That's why we
Speaker 3: got the eighth congressional district, which you're certainly familiar with,
Speaker 3: familiar from Well County. And we essentially eight hundred thousand
Speaker 3: people moved here over about a fifteen year period, but
Speaker 3: largely the last ten that last ten year period, and
Speaker 3: these are the big chunk of them are younger, they're
Speaker 3: more liberal, and their social attitudes and unfortunately they are
Speaker 3: very they have been very anti Trump, and they greatly
Speaker 3: impacted the twenty the twenty sixteen election when Trump lost
Speaker 3: to Hillary Clinton by four points, When Trump losts to
Speaker 3: Biden in twenty twenty, in twenty twenty by fourteen points,
Speaker 3: he lost too, He lost to Hillary by four points
Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen, and then in twenty twenty four he
Speaker 3: lost to Paris by eleven And the bottom line is
Speaker 3: that those victories for Democrats and those presidential elections here
Speaker 3: in Colorado were driven by these new voters. So the
Speaker 3: question is are they just gone to us forever. I
Speaker 3: don't think they are, And I would point to you
Speaker 3: to the proposition ahh, property tax proposal that was on
Speaker 3: the ballot supported by every Democrat in Colorado in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, down in Flame by twenty points. So I
Speaker 3: think that tells us that a lot of these voters
Speaker 3: will vote are more conservative in they're economic out looks,
Speaker 3: and so that we have a chance of them in
Speaker 3: the future.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, by all the pulling out there, the younger
Speaker 2: voters on the on the scene, the ones that survived
Speaker 2: through the COVID era, if you will, Uh, there's there
Speaker 2: tending to vote way more conservative, and those people are
Speaker 2: in the voting age now. So hopefully that's where we're
Speaker 2: going to get to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this legislature, my lord, can can it get
Speaker 3: any worse? I mean, every time I think it cannot
Speaker 3: get any worse, it does.
Speaker 4: Yeah, don't down.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. And you know, it just seems to me
Speaker 3: at some point, Steve, we're going to hit a breaking
Speaker 3: point in Colorado where people are going to realize, you know,
Speaker 3: these people in the legislature are the ones who responsible
Speaker 3: for the constant living, for the crime, for the homelessness,
Speaker 3: for all the things that are for the fact that
Speaker 3: so many people that their education system is broken, and
Speaker 3: they've they've been in power, they have been in total
Speaker 3: power for so long, and then there could there will
Speaker 3: be a breaking point well occur this election cycle. I
Speaker 3: don't know, but I do think that Democrats make you
Speaker 3: feeling bolden that they can past anything on the part
Speaker 3: of us that they want to.
Speaker 2: Well, Dick, I appreciate you coming on at the start
Speaker 2: of the show. I know that your time is valuable.
Speaker 2: We're going to cut to a break, but thanks for
Speaker 2: being on with us, even if you weren't the most
Speaker 2: encouraging person out there, but there's still hope. Dick again,
Speaker 2: Thanks and you're listening to the Dankplas Show here on
Speaker 2: six point thirty Khi. We'll cut the break.
Speaker 5: And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 6: Also, a bill aimed at enhancing civil rights for Colorado
Speaker 6: immigrants heads back to the Senate after the House made
Speaker 6: some amendments yesterday afternoon. State Senate sponsors will now have
Speaker 6: to decide whether to accept the House changes or convene
Speaker 6: a committee to negotiate them. The bill would restrict agents
Speaker 6: from going into non public areas in places like hospitals, jails,
Speaker 6: and schools. It would also restrict what information local governments
Speaker 6: could share with the FEDS, including a person's immigration status.
Speaker 7: Going in depth, the immigration bill could bring more attention
Speaker 7: from the White House. The Trump administration already suing Colorado
Speaker 7: and Denver over their immigration policies.
Speaker 4: That lawsuit was filed just this past Friday.
Speaker 7: On top of that, President Donald Trump signed an executive
Speaker 7: order on Monday directing the US Attorney General and Homeland
Speaker 7: Security to identify what they consider to be sanctuary jurisdictions.
Speaker 7: Those jurisdictions could then lose federal funding.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Dan Kaplis Show. You got well
Speaker 2: Kenny Sheriff Steve Riams sitting in the hot seat today.
Speaker 2: We led back in with that little news clip because
Speaker 2: it's talking about the thing that I think Republicans can
Speaker 2: truly win on in this state, and that's still the
Speaker 2: topic of a legal immigration and whether or not this
Speaker 2: state is in fact a sanctuary state, even though Governor
Speaker 2: Poulis repeatedly says this is not a sanctuary state. I
Speaker 2: live here, I work here in law enforcement. I've never
Speaker 2: known of a state to be more of a sanctuary
Speaker 2: state than this. When I first got here in the studio,
Speaker 2: sat down with Ryan and we were kind of going
Speaker 2: back and forth. And I think the thing that the
Speaker 2: Democrats are holding their hat on, especially Jered Poulis, is
Speaker 2: there's not one definite definition of what a sanctuary state is.
Speaker 2: But it's kind of one of those things. When you
Speaker 2: see it, you know what it is. And when you
Speaker 2: drive through Colorado, especially if you drive through Denver or Aurora,
Speaker 2: especially certain parts of Aurora, you know you're in a
Speaker 2: sanctuary state. There's no ifs ands or butts. You know
Speaker 2: that we are inviting a certain type of person to
Speaker 2: come live here illegally, and they are doing so in
Speaker 2: great numbers. So, having said all that, I'd like to
Speaker 2: invite all of you to call in text in let
Speaker 2: me know your thoughts on what you think makes a
Speaker 2: sanctuary state and is Colorado one of those places you
Speaker 2: can text in text start your text with Dan to
Speaker 2: five seven seven three nine, or you can call in
Speaker 2: three O three seven one three eight two fivey five.
Speaker 2: I love to interact with the caller, so again that's
Speaker 2: three oh three seven, one, three eight, two five five,
Speaker 2: And kind of to start things up, Alexa, one of
Speaker 2: the crowd favorites out there, she texts in share frames,
Speaker 2: there isn't much I respect about the Dems. However, Dems
Speaker 2: are like the Italian extended families. They may fight like
Speaker 2: haities internally, but externally they present a united front. Colorado
Speaker 2: and National Republicans always air their dirty laundry to everyone.
Speaker 2: I wish they could be rowing in the same direction
Speaker 2: instead of all this internal fighting. So sick of this, Alex,
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. That's kind of how we started
Speaker 2: the show off with. You know, hey, we got to
Speaker 2: get past this. And again, I think what Chairwoman Britta
Speaker 2: Horn did by kind of saying, all right, this is
Speaker 2: the starting point for my tenure, even if it is
Speaker 2: a little ways into that process. She's saying, this is
Speaker 2: the books I was handed. You guys can make your
Speaker 2: own judgment. I'm moving forward from here. At least that's
Speaker 2: what I hope the message is. And then how do
Speaker 2: we raise money, how do we get people elected? And
Speaker 2: most all, most of all, how do we bring this
Speaker 2: state back from the brink of pure disaster? I mean again,
Speaker 2: when I drive down to the studios each day when
Speaker 2: I'm covering for Dan, I get to see things that
Speaker 2: I don't see in my typical drives around Weld County.
Speaker 2: I mean, you might be surprised by this if you're
Speaker 2: a listener out there and haven't been to Weld County.
Speaker 4: We still uphold the rule of law.
Speaker 2: We still don't fit the definition of what a sanctuary
Speaker 2: state would be. We've very much pushed back on that,
Speaker 2: and so while Denver and Aurora may embrace that label,
Speaker 2: Weald County does not. Most of the cities in Weald
Speaker 2: County do not, the town's whatever you want to call them,
Speaker 2: the municipalities. We still believe in supporting Colorado citizens and
Speaker 2: doing so first to protect our state and not doing
Speaker 2: so secondarily to protect people who shouldn't even be in
Speaker 2: this state. But as we're talking about Senate Bill two
Speaker 2: seventy six, you know, the question is will the governor
Speaker 2: sign it, will he put his name to it, will
Speaker 2: he say this is what I believe in? And some
Speaker 2: of the things that have been outlined by different folks
Speaker 2: about this bill they're pretty shocking, but one I think
Speaker 2: the most shocking part, like We've already passed House Bill
Speaker 2: nineteen eleven twenty four in the state of Colorado that
Speaker 2: says local law enforcement cannot detain an illegal immigrant past
Speaker 2: their release date on behalf of ICE. We can't honor
Speaker 2: their quote unquote administrative warrants. That being said, there was
Speaker 2: never a provision that we couldn't have ICE come into
Speaker 2: the building. You know, if they did have some kind
Speaker 2: of legal reason to be there, they wanted to interview someone,
Speaker 2: we didn't have to treat them like second class law
Speaker 2: enforcement citizens. But Senebill two seventy six goes even farther
Speaker 2: than that. It says, not only can you not work
Speaker 2: with ICE in any fundamental way, but you can't even
Speaker 2: let them in your building. I mean, that's just that's
Speaker 2: such a slap in the face to what their mission is.
Speaker 2: And it's also a slap in the face to local
Speaker 2: law enforcement. We catch a guy, we get him convicted.
Speaker 2: Let's say his, he or she's time is up in
Speaker 2: the county jail. ICE has every reason to come get
Speaker 2: them and send them back to their country. They have
Speaker 2: a window of opportunity to do so, they get there
Speaker 2: before that person is supposed to be released. I can't
Speaker 2: even let them in my jail to do that in
Speaker 2: a secured facility so that no one gets hurt. Under
Speaker 2: this bill, I have to let that person go out
Speaker 2: onto the street and say good luck. Ice, see if
Speaker 2: you can catch them. I mean, that's just it's it's
Speaker 2: beyond the pale of what is stupid. You know, Denver's
Speaker 2: been doing this. On a few of the few occasions
Speaker 2: ICE has had to chase guys down, They've gotten people
Speaker 2: hurt in the process. That's what this bill is asking
Speaker 2: to become the norm for law enforcement. If that's not
Speaker 2: a campaign issue for Republicans to stand on, I don't
Speaker 2: know what is. Here's another text. It says Sheriff Steve,
Speaker 2: if I was going to create a sanctuary state, I
Speaker 2: do exactly what the DIMS have done. That's Steven little
Speaker 2: Tony's retired l e O. You hit the nail on
Speaker 2: the head, Steve. I mean, this is the definition of
Speaker 2: a sanctuary state.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I know we've tried to claw back and say no,
Speaker 2: this can't happen, but it's here. It's here, folks. I'm
Speaker 2: just so frustrated. I'm tired of living in this in
Speaker 2: this make believe land of no sanctuary state, but seeing
Speaker 2: it slap me in the face every day.
Speaker 4: All Right, we're gonna go to break.
Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll have District Attorney Michael Rourke
Speaker 2: from welld County on and he can talk to you
Speaker 2: about some of these same issues. You listen to the
Speaker 2: Dan Caplis Show here on six point.
Speaker 4: Thirty k how.
Speaker 5: You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Dan Caplis Show with well Kenny
Speaker 2: Sheriff Steve Raims sittting in the driver's seat today and
Speaker 2: on the phone with us. We've got the district attorney
Speaker 2: for my county, Weld County, out of the nineteenth Judicial District,
Speaker 2: Michael Rourke. How are you doing this afternoon?
Speaker 8: Hey, Sheriff, Good afternoon, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for coming on. You know, we talked a
Speaker 2: little bit earlier, I guess last week at the end
Speaker 2: of the week about some ideas for the show, and
Speaker 2: you know, obviously there's some things that have developed over
Speaker 2: the weekend with the FEDS dropping a lawsuit on the
Speaker 2: state of Colorado, so we got to start with a
Speaker 2: little bit of that, and I know I didn't prep
Speaker 2: here for that But what do you think is there
Speaker 2: any chance of this federal lawsuit changing the tide here
Speaker 2: in Colorado on some of these sanctuary bills.
Speaker 8: And I sure hope so, Sheriff, because like we talked about,
Speaker 8: and I know we'll get into a couple of other topics,
Speaker 8: but I heard you're talking in the last segment about,
Speaker 8: you know, Colorado being a sanctuary state. Not only is
Speaker 8: it a sanctuary state, it's become a sanctuary for crime state.
Speaker 8: And certainly I think that the threat of this lawsuit,
Speaker 8: or the existence of this lawsuit specifically, I hope causes
Speaker 8: some reasonable minds to reconsider the policies that has the
Speaker 8: state headed in the direction of anti public safety, which
Speaker 8: you and I talk about all the time. Yeah, I
Speaker 8: sure hope.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 8: I don't know if it will actually make a difference
Speaker 8: in the long run, but I sure hope it does.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's always a way to set precedents,
Speaker 2: and I hate to see it have to happen through lawsuits,
Speaker 2: But at this point, I don't think there's any way
Speaker 2: of changing the tide from what our crazy legislature is doing.
Speaker 2: But you know, you hit a huge topic, and that's
Speaker 2: that Colorado has become a crime sanctuary. What does your
Speaker 2: docket look like in Weld County? Do you have enough
Speaker 2: prosecutors to even begin to try to tackle the amount
Speaker 2: of crime that the law enforcement contacts in and about
Speaker 2: World County.
Speaker 8: But let me give you a statistic that I think
Speaker 8: can help answer that question real quickly. On average a
Speaker 8: community of our size, you know, World County being roughly
Speaker 8: three hundred thousand people on average. Over the last decade
Speaker 8: or so, we've tried to a jury somewhere in the
Speaker 8: neighborhood of fifty to fifty five felony trials, which is
Speaker 8: a significant case load for my prosecutors, for your deputies,
Speaker 8: for police officers in the municipalities. So fifty five on
Speaker 8: average so far this year, including this week, we are
Speaker 8: already at thirty eight felony trials and it's May fifth.
Speaker 8: These are felony trials that are homicides, attempted murders, crimes
Speaker 8: against children, sexual assaults. These are cases that I think
Speaker 8: our public expects to be in trial. And that's five months,
Speaker 8: you know, not even five months, four months right into
Speaker 8: the year, and or we're you know, already sitting here
Speaker 8: at thirty eight.
Speaker 4: You're happy past.
Speaker 8: Your average exactly. Math is not my strong suit, but
Speaker 8: I'll work for it. But yeah, it is a massive
Speaker 8: problem that we're having right now, and we are all
Speaker 8: of us, as you well know, very incredibly busy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so a.
Speaker 2: Couple of topics. We have bail reform that kind of
Speaker 2: landed in our state a couple of legislative sessions ago,
Speaker 2: and a lot of people go, little, bail reform, What
Speaker 2: can that mean? I mean, you know, we don't want
Speaker 2: people being overly punished and held in jail if they shouldn't.
Speaker 2: What has bail reform actually done to your job and
Speaker 2: my job in a lot of ways? And try to
Speaker 2: explain that to the listeners what bail reform actually means?
Speaker 8: Sure, what bail form. The talking points for bail reform is,
Speaker 8: we don't want to keep somebody in jail simply because
Speaker 8: they can't afford financially to post a bond. Makes sense
Speaker 8: on fathe However, what I think that that talking point
Speaker 8: seems to ignore is that a judge a magistrate, after
Speaker 8: listening to an argument from a prosecutor and from the
Speaker 8: other side, is going to set a reasonable amount of
Speaker 8: bond based upon a defendant's criminal history. A defendant's prior
Speaker 8: failure to appear rate. And what we have seen is
Speaker 8: with the systematic reduction of bonds and the increase of
Speaker 8: the issue on sub personal recognizance bond, we are seeing
Speaker 8: the same repeat offenders over and over and over. Hit
Speaker 8: your jail, bond out, go back out onto our streets,
Speaker 8: create a new victim, create another crime, hit your jail again.
Speaker 8: And it is a massive revolving door. And so despite
Speaker 8: arguments from good public safety minded prosecutors to judges, because
Speaker 8: of some of the things the legislature has done to us,
Speaker 8: we have defendants who are getting back out on the
Speaker 8: street pre trial, committing new offenses and having multiple cases
Speaker 8: rack up while they are waiting for their first case
Speaker 8: go to trial. This is the same effort that we
Speaker 8: saw in Oregon. It's the same effort we saw in
Speaker 8: New York. And all of a sudden, the State of
Speaker 8: New York is rolling back bail reform because they realized
Speaker 8: it didn't work. It made us less safe as a community.
Speaker 2: Well, and it's making Colorado less safe, There's no doubt
Speaker 2: about it. I can throw a few names out there
Speaker 2: of individuals we've had to arrest twelve and thirteen times
Speaker 2: before we could ever get them to a trial on
Speaker 2: you know, those first couple of cases. And I'm sure
Speaker 2: you have names that stick in your brain for the
Speaker 2: same thing. So one other thing that you and I
Speaker 2: have discussed is the mental competency issues in the state
Speaker 2: of Colorado. And I can argue that there's a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of things that affect mental competency, but I think
Speaker 2: that's being used as a crutch right now. And I
Speaker 2: know this is a thing that burns you a hole
Speaker 2: in your gut, But talk to the listeners a little
Speaker 2: bit about what that mental competency status is doing to
Speaker 2: your ability to try criminals.
Speaker 8: Let me back up and give you one little piece
Speaker 8: to kind of set the stage. Sure, we have a
Speaker 8: massive backlog at the state level in terms of getting
Speaker 8: competency or insanity evaluations done and then efforts to restore
Speaker 8: defendance to competency.
Speaker 2: You mean the state's not doing its job? Is that
Speaker 2: what I just heard you say?
Speaker 8: Shock, It is what you heard me say. Yes, you're correct.
Speaker 8: And so therefore, the federal government had, the federal courts
Speaker 8: had to step in and put Colorado under a consent decree,
Speaker 8: which says that the State of Colorado will be fined
Speaker 8: if you don't hit certain benchmarks in order to in
Speaker 8: getting restoration proceedings or competency services being done in a
Speaker 8: more timely fashion for defendants. In response to that, what
Speaker 8: the legislature did is didn't give you more evaluators, didn't
Speaker 8: give you more competency restoration services individuals. In fact, they're
Speaker 8: cutting back on those individuals. What they did was they
Speaker 8: wrote a statute that took effect a couple of years
Speaker 8: ago and amended it a couple of times since then,
Speaker 8: which says, if you're charged with a certain level of
Speaker 8: offense and you're found to be incompetent, your charges are
Speaker 8: automatically dismissed. For other somewhat more significant charges, if you
Speaker 8: sit in your jail or are on restoration services for
Speaker 8: six months or one year and haven't been restored, your
Speaker 8: charges are dismissed. So what we're seeing is defendants who
Speaker 8: have three, four or five cases being dismissed. They go
Speaker 8: back out onto our streets, pull guns on individuals, stab
Speaker 8: other people. They come back into your jail, into my courtrooms,
Speaker 8: and now we are left with the case being dismissed
Speaker 8: again because there's a presumption that once you've been found
Speaker 8: and competent, you're going to be found and competent again.
Speaker 2: So it's just an easy pathway for someone to get
Speaker 2: basically a get out of jail free card. So all right,
Speaker 2: having said all that, what does that look like for
Speaker 2: I mean, what is the long term fix for that?
Speaker 2: Is there one without changing the law?
Speaker 8: I think that without changing the law that the answer.
Speaker 8: And I hate to say this because I am a
Speaker 8: good conservative steward of taxpayer dollars, it has to be
Speaker 8: funding additional, additional evaluators and treatment providers. Because we are
Speaker 8: not going to be able to legislate our way out
Speaker 8: of this. We have got to treat the problem where
Speaker 8: the problem exists, and that is with individuals with mental
Speaker 8: health issues that are causing them to commit these crimes
Speaker 8: over and over again, victimizing our communities.
Speaker 2: Board ends up in a and what we none of
Speaker 2: us want to be involved in, and that's a police
Speaker 2: shooting where suspect is killed or officers get hurt, or
Speaker 2: innocent people get hurt. And I think that is that's
Speaker 2: on the rise in the state of Colorado, and it
Speaker 2: has to be at least in part due to these
Speaker 2: same things.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, that's exactly right. And you know as well as
Speaker 8: I do. What you just hit on is exactly right.
Speaker 8: We have individuals who've been involved in officer involved shootings
Speaker 8: because of mental health issues. We charge them because they
Speaker 8: have survived that encounter with law enforcement, luckily, and we
Speaker 8: charge them. They are found incompetent. We can't restore them
Speaker 8: to competency in a timely fashion, and so the charges
Speaker 8: are dismissed. Again, this individual that I'm thinking of here
Speaker 8: in Greeley is back on our streets, law enforcement having
Speaker 8: to deal with that individual again.
Speaker 4: What could possibly go wrong? Well, we said exactly.
Speaker 2: I think in the state of Colorado, we've said time
Speaker 2: and time again, if you want to fix the mental
Speaker 2: health problem or mental health crisis we have here, you
Speaker 2: have to first admit that you have a crisis. But
Speaker 2: that's just like the issue with sanctuary st you have
Speaker 2: to admit that you've become one in order to get
Speaker 2: back off the brink. Michael, I know you're in your
Speaker 2: last term as district attorney. You've been there this year.
Speaker 2: You're going into your what nineth year? Is that correct?
Speaker 8: Actually I just started year yeah, okay, ten tier, So.
Speaker 2: It seems to me, since we're kind of looking on
Speaker 2: the horizon of maybe needing an attorney general candidate. You
Speaker 2: know you can't be the district attorney in world forever.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're done there. This would be a perfectly
Speaker 2: good time for you to announce that candidacy if you
Speaker 2: chose to.
Speaker 8: Suff I sure wish we would have talked about this
Speaker 8: on radio. You and I have talked about it off
Speaker 8: off record, and I am very happy where I'm at
Speaker 8: right now. I am very happy serving the wonderful citizens
Speaker 8: that you and I get to here in will County.
Speaker 8: And I'll figure out what I'm going to do with
Speaker 8: it at the end of my term.
Speaker 4: At the end of my term, that's fair enough.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, if you decide you want to break
Speaker 2: that news, I'm sure there'll be an opportunity in the
Speaker 2: future when I'm filling in for Dan again, and so
Speaker 2: we'll just schedule that somewhere down the road.
Speaker 8: But Michael Good, my good friend Steve Reams will be
Speaker 8: the first to know.
Speaker 2: Michael, I couldn't ask for a better partner in what
Speaker 2: we do in Welld County. You've been a great prosecutor
Speaker 2: and I know you'll continue to do that through the
Speaker 2: end of your term. Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 2: Thanks for educating us all a little bit about some
Speaker 2: of the hurdles that you're going through. And you know,
Speaker 2: if you want to leave us with a parting shot,
Speaker 2: what could Colorado do to say, all right, let's turn
Speaker 2: the tide. What do you think that one magic.
Speaker 8: Bullet is That one magic bullet is to get back
Speaker 8: to thinking, let's take care of and worry about public
Speaker 8: safety first, everything else second.
Speaker 2: That makes perfect sense to me. Michael, again, thanks for
Speaker 2: coming on. That's the Well County District Attorney, nineteenth District,
Speaker 2: nineteenth Judicial District Attorney, Michael Rourke. I'm sure at some
Speaker 2: point we'll hear that he's running for attorney general. But
Speaker 2: thanks for being on with us. We're going to cut
Speaker 2: to a break. You're listening to the Dan Kaplas Show
Speaker 2: here on six point thirty k how with Well Kenny Sheriff,
Speaker 2: Steve Reams.
Speaker 5: And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Dan Kaplas Show with Well Kenny
Speaker 2: Sheriff Steve setting in as the substitute today and of
Speaker 2: all the songs I thought I'd ever come back to
Speaker 2: on a radio show. That's not it, But I actually
Speaker 2: liked that song. That's got a little bit of a
Speaker 2: throwback there. While we were away at break. Got a
Speaker 2: few texts coming in, but I want to remind you
Speaker 2: our text number is five seven, seven three nine. Start
Speaker 2: your text out with Dan. Send in whatever you want.
Speaker 2: I'll do my best to answer it. A lot of
Speaker 2: good comments coming in also, you can call in three
Speaker 2: oh three seven one three eight two five five. The
Speaker 2: question of the day is is Colorado a sanctuary state?
Speaker 2: And I'll add this to it. If you think it's
Speaker 2: a sanctuary state, what's that thing that trips your trigger
Speaker 2: and says yep, we're a sanctuary state. Other than just
Speaker 2: you know the fact that police gets on the news
Speaker 2: and says no, we are not a sanctuary state when
Speaker 2: he looks into the camera and just bold face lies.
Speaker 2: But a few of the texts that come in says Steve,
Speaker 2: Colorado has a perfectly good, hardly been used prison up
Speaker 2: in Hudson that can hold a lot of illegal criminals.
Speaker 2: And I'm so glad that this text are sent it in.
Speaker 2: This is Dan from northern Colorado. He is absolutely correct,
Speaker 2: and believe it or not, the Trump administration is actually
Speaker 2: looking at that prison and trying to figure out how
Speaker 2: to get that thing reopened so that they can serve
Speaker 2: the western part of the United States here, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska.
Speaker 2: And I know this because I happen to have been
Speaker 2: the one to plug the ownership group for that prison
Speaker 2: in with the Trump administration. And we're doing our best.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't say we. I'm not working on it anymore.
Speaker 2: I just connected the dots, but trying to get that
Speaker 2: thing open so that they do have a place other
Speaker 2: than just the facility down in Aurora, which is jam
Speaker 2: packed right now. The prison up in Hudson, I believe
Speaker 2: holds fourteen hundred people, so definitely could speed up the
Speaker 2: process if we can get that thing reopened. Another one here. Yes,
Speaker 2: Colorado is a sanctuary state, and I hope the people
Speaker 2: who deemed it that and help the illegals get here
Speaker 2: get prosecuted. Boy, that's no truer words have been spoken.
Speaker 2: And it looks like we got a collar on the line.
Speaker 2: We'll give give him just a second to get all
Speaker 2: their details out. While we're waiting on that, someone asked, Hey,
Speaker 2: do you know the status of the awful HB thirteen twelve.
Speaker 2: I just looked it up while we were at break.
Speaker 2: It looks like it went to the Senate at nine
Speaker 2: point thirty for floor work, whatever that means. So it's
Speaker 2: not to the governor's desk yet. I guess there's still
Speaker 2: hope that it could die a fiery death, but I
Speaker 2: don't think that's a very realistic view at this point.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna probably end up getting that thing on
Speaker 2: the governor's desk, and I don't think there's any chance
Speaker 2: that he doesn't sign it at this point. So who knows.
Speaker 2: Do we have our caller ready? Ryan, Yeah, it's all
Speaker 2: coming down to Kelly. Oh, Kelly probably got another call
Speaker 2: coming here. You're very popular. She's failing us, failing us
Speaker 2: f minus.
Speaker 4: That's the great she gets you.
Speaker 2: She's probably too busy having a conversation with the caller.
Speaker 2: Didn't didn't get the caller on the line. That's okay,
Speaker 2: keep going with the text, right, Yeah, we'll do that,
Speaker 2: it says sheriff. What needs to happen is for this
Speaker 2: new bill, Trump needs to pull all federal funds and
Speaker 2: let the state raise even more taxes so the Dems
Speaker 2: will leave him. We can vote this come out you know,
Speaker 2: that's actually pretty strategic. So we take away all the
Speaker 2: federal funds. The Dems taxes to death. They tax themselves
Speaker 2: out of control, and then they have to leave.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 2: That's pretty painful in the process though. On So we
Speaker 2: got Paul from Colorado Springs. Paul, what do you have
Speaker 2: to say to us?
Speaker 9: Well, I like to say I was born and raised
Speaker 9: in dem Colorado, around twenty years ago. I moved to
Speaker 9: Las Vegas, Nevada, relocated back two years ago. And I
Speaker 9: gotta tell you, I am discussing with the state. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 9: kevinar he's a joke, And I'll tell you why he's
Speaker 9: over here passing these guns laws. They're so worried about
Speaker 9: the gun laws, but they can't even protect their own
Speaker 9: state border. You're letting all these people in and you're
Speaker 9: worried about a gun law, but all these illegals that
Speaker 9: are coming in. And my other thing is you can't
Speaker 9: go and help the police, say iyes, okay, I understand
Speaker 9: that I don't agree with it, but why can't I
Speaker 9: break the law, go hide in the church in a school.
Speaker 4: Well, so, you know, absolutely no sense, that's a that's
Speaker 4: a great question.
Speaker 2: We've got kind of a cast system set up where
Speaker 2: if you're an illegal, it's almost like you get more
Speaker 2: provisions from the law than if you're a regular US citizen.
Speaker 2: I mean, it makes no sense. In your time away
Speaker 2: when you were in Nevada and then coming back, why
Speaker 2: the heck did you come back?
Speaker 9: Well, my mother's eighty seven years old. Okay, that's fair, laceship,
Speaker 9: and my son stayed here, you know, living in Nevada,
Speaker 9: and they all agree with men. And you know this
Speaker 9: is going to really get you. I'm a registered Democrat.
Speaker 9: I've been a Democrat my whole life, forty some years.
Speaker 9: You know, since you get out of high school, you
Speaker 9: register and you're sign up for the military. But it's
Speaker 9: just amazing how people here just don't see it. And
Speaker 9: you know, one other thing is Colorado is so high
Speaker 9: on affordable living, affordable housing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, where do you find it?
Speaker 9: Well, not only where you're correct, but my thing is,
Speaker 9: why don't you help people where they can afford the house?
Speaker 2: Well, you mean, get rid of some of the fees
Speaker 2: and taxes that they're killing us with in this state. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can't imagine why that would be a good policy.
Speaker 9: But Paul belieb Well had one of the best mayors
Speaker 9: Oscar Goodman. If this if this mayor here wants to
Speaker 9: learn some go talk to the good ones in Las Vegas.
Speaker 9: She'll show you how to straighten it out.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, fair enough, Paul, thanks for calling in. I'm
Speaker 2: sorry you moved back to a state that kind of
Speaker 2: left its left its mind at the door. But uh,
Speaker 2: welcome back to Colorado. Nonetheless, and thanks for calling in.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 9: We're gonna change it.
Speaker 2: You bet all right. We're going to cut the brake
Speaker 2: when we come back. We'll have plenty of time to
Speaker 2: get to your text and your calls. Keep them coming
Speaker 2: in again. That's five seven seven three nine. Start your
Speaker 2: text with Dan or three O three seven one three
Speaker 2: eight two five five call in. Let's let's have a conversation.
Speaker 2: Let's see where we can get this thing going. You're
Speaker 2: listening to Steve Reims covering for Dan kaplis here on
Speaker 2: six thirty k how we'll be back right after this
Speaker 2: break